YouTube game videos become a big channel for game marketers

Original Article: http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/18/youtube-game-videos-become-a-big-channel-for-game-marketers/

YouTube has provided a great market for posting viral videos related to video games, just as it has been for almost any other kind of video that captures buzz.

But Google’s YouTube division is starting to pull out all the stops to enable game developers to launch video campaigns on the site — and to make money by adding officially sanctioned game videos. You can expect this viral marketing to grow as the economy takes a toll on marketing budgets and more publishers discover how to take advantage of the enthusiasm of YouTube fans.

A prime example is the Tiger Woods “walk on water” video posted by Electronic Arts in response to a user pointing out a bug in the game. Levinator 25 posted a video that showed how Woods could walk on water in the game and hit a ball. EA’s marketing department turned it around, launching a video that specifically addressed Levinator 25. In the video, the real Tiger Woods walks on water into a pond and hits a ball from the top of a lily pad. The video has had more than 2.5 million views, and YouTube shares the ad revenue with EA.

It’s not a ton of money, for sure. But it comes at a time when the costs of marketing on TV and other places is climbing — contributing to the budget headaches at game publishers who now spend $25 million or more on developing and marketing a single game on a regular basis.

The effort to make YouTube more friendly to games sprung up for a couple reasons. Game fans have become obsessed with Machinima videos (films of actual game play) with funny voice overs creating unique narratives. Among the biggest is Red vs. Blue, which starts the Halo Master Chief characters in red or blue body armor. Now the videos on the Machinima channel on YouTube have been viewed more than 14 million times. The most popular one, a [updated] Machinima.com episode entitled Master Chief Sucks at Halo 3, has been viewed more than six million times.

Microsoft tapped into the viral craze when it created a television commercial for the game Gears of War in 2006. The searing video images from the game were set to the haunting Donnie Darko version of the song Mad World. The video aired on YouTube at the same time the commercial launched. To date, the YouTube video has been viewed more than 5 million times.

And YouTube has also built syndication tools that made it easier for game publishers to incorporate YouTube into their actual products, said Nikhil Chandhok, head of video syndication efforts related to gaming at YouTube. In March of this year, YouTube contacted EA to launch a formal program for scripting videos for game fans. By that time, it was a no brainer that channels on YouTube could be great marketing tools.

“They were in tune with this viral growth on the web,” Chandhok said.

In June, EA launched Spore Creature Creator, a $10 version of its Spore game. Then, from within the application, players could share videos of their creations by clicking a button and uploading to YouTube. The idea was to get buzz going about the game before its September launch. To date, more than 158,000 videos of Spore creatures have been uploaded. The most popular of these videos has been viewed 194,000 times. EA ran a contest on YouTube, including a link to buy the game online on the contest site. This way, YouTube helps monetize the videos directly.

Spore itself picked up from EA’s earlier game, The Sims. There are more than 240,000 Sims videos on YouTube created by users. The top 100 Sims YouTube videos have been viewed over 130 million times, and about 35 percent of the top 100 machinima video views are of The Sims. Some of the best videos are highlighted on EA’s own site (www.thesims2.com) and on The Sims channel on YouTube.

YouTube makes the videos with EA’s content available on the EA channel on the site and then shares revenue from ads associated with those videos. Chandhok said there will be a lot more collaborations coming in 2009 between game publishers and YouTube. On top of that, Chandhok anticipates that users will start creating their own games based on videos. They can, for instance, show users a scene from a story and then have the users pick what happens next.

A personalized landing page for every customer

While most direct marketing efforts invite consumers to reply by mail, a full 42 percent of interested recipients prefer to respond online, according to a recent study by the Direct Marketing Association. Rather than send those consumers to a generic landing page—where the likelihood they’ll stay diminishes with every click—new technology from MindFireInc lets companies create a personalized URL and landing page for each and every consumer.

LookWho’sClicking automates the creation and management of direct marketing campaigns using dynamic landing pages, personalized URLs, response tracking and more. Using a company’s campaign mail file, the software first generates and hosts a personalized URL for each recipient—such as JoeSmith.Shoesaver.com, for example—and automates the process of inserting those unique addresses into the mail file for inclusion in each direct mail piece. When Joe Smith visits his personalized URL, he’ll see a personalized VIP Landing Page tailored specifically to him and to the direct mail piece he holds in his hand, with matching design and a welcome message that thanks him by name for visiting. The technology then captures Joe’s activity for additional follow-up and lead generation, all in real time; comprehensive reports display campaign response rates, visitor patterns and detailed lead information. Microsoft, BMW and Nestle are among the 500 companies using the technology, MindFireInc says.

In this era of mass-customization, consumers expect to be addressed in a way that recognizes their individuality, and if it can stroke their gravanity too, then all the better. Something tells us this one will eventually become hygiene!

Website: www.mindfireinc.com/info/personalized_url_marketing.html
Original Article http://springwise.com/marketing_advertising/a_personalized_landing_page_fo/

Top Seven Social Media, Online Marketing, and Internet Trends for 2009

What do you think will be the great emerging media and online trends for the upcoming year? What are your predictions about the latest trends people will be buzzing about in 2009 and 2010?

First, crowd sourcing will be a huge social media trend for 2009. Crowd souring has the potential to take off pretty big, although i don’t see the online movement in that direction. The launch of Predictify suggest such a conclusion. Also, Idea Blob has been fairly successful. There are a number of crowd sourcing creative (graphic design and video) that are bubbling to the surface beyond the e-lance model. This will only continue to increase as the need for outsourcing and budget cutting continues in 2009. The trend known as crowd funding may also see an upward and exciting trajectory. (See also: Springwise and Top Crowd sourcing Resources, Websites, + Companies)

Second, 2009 will see a re-newed focus on technology efficiency and productivity. This may push the need for filtering and make 2009 the Year of the Editor. The launch of Filtrbox has been huge in creating a better filter for the web and specifically RSS. Alltop has been another great filter for the web. I hear that Shel is working on a project in this area, but I think its longer term. The need is particularly acute in the hyper local, event, and mobile space.

Third, leveraging offline connection with online connection should be a big internet trend in 2009. Certainly the unconference movement (Podcamp, Barcamp, and almost anything else with the -camp name on it. Did you know there was a Cupcake Camp??? Yum!!! Sign me up.) and Meet up have pushed for more person to person contact, however the pressence of twitter along with the burgeoning mobile market make this a place for great innovation and great potential ROI. One of the best solutions to social networking overstrech is to provide tangible solutions. Some of this may take the form of Jellys and co-working, while others will around Meetups and Craigslist. Tribes, movements, and brands that are able to leverage offline connection will create a unique market space for themselves and will create more sustainable tribe longevity and intensity. Whether Tweet-up like events, blogs, or hubs like Ning drive this connection, it will certainly be a fantastic market differentiator. One social network who leads in this area is Yelp. Photojojo has also expanded and improved on this space. People crave real people to people connection. Will others follow in 2009?

Fourth, mobile and iPhone will continue to see massive user and application growth. Realistically, the surface has only been scratched here. As the price falls, the iPhone will continue to go mainstream and pick up users. Alternatively, can the iPhone get people to switch from a Crackberry? Ultimately, the cult of Mac may be put to the test in this regard. Luckily Mac is also empowered by developers who are rapidly putting out the next best iPhone application you will be reading and raving about in 2009.

Fifth, video driven communities that drive conversation will take off in social media. Winelibrary TV, Epic FU, and The Politico Playbook (aka Kotecki TV) have shown what video can do. Momversation, sponsored by Target, is driving conversation and community around the issues of moms. The video serves as a fantastic differentiator, creates emotional connection, and is potentially truly remarkable content.

Sixth, monetization will prove to be huge as more startups have to confront bugetary and cost-cutting issues. Contextual ads and affiliates may be surpassed by newer models for collaborative monetization. Although, the former seem more scalable for the moment. If niche companies went after the best in a given industry to serve as a filter, this space would be far easier for creative new content creators to navigate and would create a rich root system upon which open source solutions and micro-enterprise can flourish. (See also Tip Joy and Chip In)

Additional Startup Trends and Technology Questions for 2009:
Don’t call it a comeback: Message boards and wikis will make a resurgence both for internal communication and community conversation. This new era of message boards will have more social, aggregation, mobile and integrated features. (Gary Vanerchuk at Wine Library TV has one)

Everybody, everybody get your collaboration on. As de-centralized workspaces make social media a necessity for many startups and entrepreneurs, simple and productive project collaboration like Basecamp and Pivotal Tracker will also see a large boom.

As transparency and accountability increases in government, via initiatives like Change.gov and the Sunlight Foundation, companies will increasingly open up. As corporate and government social media expands, the principles of self-organization and increased transparency will.

Will semantic web or hyper-local be big next year? Only time will tell if Hyper-local social media will make a bigger name for itself. The combination of the hugeness of mobile, twitter, and real world connection make the hyper-local a great source of innovation. Hyperlocal Blogger can keep us updated. (Tips for Hyperlocal bloggers

Original Article – http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/five-top-social-media-and-web-trends-for-2009/

WOM and Celebratory

Good piece on the whole issue of key influentials and how technology like Twitter and Facebook has  increased their reach and importance. Stephen Fry, the ‘trusted friend’ to many, when it comes news and opinions on tech gear, recently Twittered his initial thoughts and feelings about the Blackberry Storm, pretty much deflating the buzz that surrounded this product at launch in the UK.
For those non-UK’ites Stephen Fry is a popular comic actor and self confessed gadget nut whom writes regular articles in leading publications about new tech gear.

Can Stephen Fry kill a gadget?

Who or what decides whether a new gadget flies – or fails? Is it the quality and quantity of the advertising? The reviews in newspapers and magazines? Word of mouth among consumers? Or, in the UK at least, could it be the views of Stephen Fry?

Stephen FryIn the old days, any new product launched by a major consumer brand was accompanied by a marketing blitz that would almost guarantee decent early sales. Then eventually the reviews in newspapers and specialist magazines and word-of-mouth from happy or disgruntled consumers would determine whether a new car, camera – or mobile phone – would be a long-term hit or miss.

Now the whole process has been accelerated by the web and is far more difficult for companies to control, with early pictures and opinions emerging online before the real “specialists” have had a chance to deliver their judgment. But with so many different views of products – from technology blogs, from specialist online forums, from any old Facebook friend – it becomes difficult for consumers to filter the noise and get a clear view. That is where a “trusted guide” like Stephen Fry comes in.

As well as being a much-loved entertainer, Mr Fry has built a reputation as one of Britain’s most knowledgeable gadget lovers – though as the second person in the UK to buy a Mac (after Douglas Adams), his passion for anything made by Apple is pretty clear. He is particularly keen on smartphones and has written at length about the various delights and disappointments of using them.

So along comes the Blackberry Storm, with an avalanche of advertising from Vodafone – which has the exclusive contract in Britain – and plenty of excitable speculation amongst the kind of people who really, really care about whether a new mobile phone has wi-fi, and whether it can turn the bath on before they get home.

Then on Twitter, where he has quickly built an audience of more than 20,000 followers, came this series of messages from Stephen Fry:

“Been playing with the BB Storm. Shockingly bad. I mean embarrassingly awful. Such a disappointment. Rushed out unfinished. What a pity.”

“Yes, I blame n’works more than RIM. Problems are terrible lag: inaccurate t’screen, awful, slow and fiddly text input. I SO wanted to like it.”

“Plus the GPS maps won’t work – issue with BIS connections. I see from forums postings this is widespread in the UK. iPhone killer? Ha!”

Those short bursts of instant reaction were then recycled and passed on by other Twitter users. As the “Twitterati” tend to be early adopters who are likely customers for new smartphones, this is a more important audience than its numbers might suggest.

Mr Fry was by no means the only expert to be deeply unimpressed by BlackBerry’s new baby. David Pogue of the New York Times, another very influential technology pundit, has also given it a stinker, and his views are now racing around networks like Twitter.

I’m sure there will still be some decent sales figures for the Storm in the early weeks – unless that advertising blitz has been completely misdirected – but what a high-end product like this need is a buzz of anticipation and that’s been silenced by Messrs Fry and Pogue.

So a couple of “trusted guides” – or “super-advocates” as someone else described them – could have sealed the fate of a product of huge importance to both RIM and Vodafone. What’s the lesson for the gadget-makers? Maybe they need to spend more time hanging out on social networks and listening to what is being said. Or perhaps they should get their products thoroughly tested by Stephen Fry and David Pogue before they are launched – rather than sit and watch their damning views go viral.

Original Article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2008/11/can_stephen_fry_kill_a_gadget.html